What must happen for the Pac-12 to play by the end of October
It's been an incredible few hours on Wednesday morning in the world of college football.
On one end, the Big Ten announced its return to the sport, joining the ACC, SEC and Big 12 as Power 5 programs set to play this fall.
On the other end of the spectrum, the Pac-12 announced that nothing has changed its status in regards of returning to play. In fact, returning may be more difficult due to the devastating wildfires lighting up Oregon and California like the apocalypse.
“At this time, our universities in California and Oregon do not have approval from state or local public health officials to start contact practice,” Scott said. “We are hopeful that our new daily testing capability can help satisfy public health official approvals in California and Oregon to begin contact practice and competition. We are equally closely monitoring the devastating fires and air quality in our region at this time. We are eager for our student-athletes to have the opportunity to play this season, as soon as it can be done safely and in accordance with public health authority approvals.”
Pac-12 coaches, players and fans alike have all come out of the woods the past few months, expressing their desire to play college football — ideally by late October to keep pace with the Big Ten and still present itself as a potential team in the College Football Playoff.
But in order for that to happen, there are numerous things that must take place within the next two weeks — here they are.
1.) Local Government Approval — As of right now (Wednesday, Sept. 16), the governments from California and Oregon have not approved the return of college football to practices, let alone playing. For that to happen, the governments must assess waivers to those teams to allow them to resume play — which is considered a potential longshot despite players from Oregon and USC writing letters to their respective government officials.
2.) Medical Advisory Approval — When the Pac-12 elected to cancel/postpone the fall sports college season on August 11, it did so based on the recommendations of its medical advisory board.
“The health, safety and well-being of our student-athletes and all those connected to Pac-12 sports has been our number one priority since the start of this current crisis,” Pac-12 Commissioner Larry Scott said in a statement. “Our student-athletes, fans, staff and all those who love college sports would like to have seen the season played this calendar year as originally planned, and we know how disappointing this is.”
What changed during that time were the growing concerns regarding myocarditis, a potential longterm effect from contracting COVID-19. But recently the Pac-12 announced its partnership with Quidel Corporation, a diagnostic company with rapid COVID-19 testing that can produce results in 15 minutes.
If the governments move forward and allow playing/practicing, the next step would be the medical advisory board to setting up safe and specific guidelines and restrictions.
3.) Scheduling Concerns — If the season is to begin at the end of October, and they want any chance to be a part of the College Football Playoff, the Pac-12 would have to adapt to the a similar timeline of the Big Ten.
Start the season on Oct. 23-24, play eight games in eight weeks (which is possible with partnership with Quidel) and then schedule a conference championship game on Dec. 19. That's one day prior to when the College Football Playoff comes out with its final rankings release.
In order to do an eight-game schedule, each team would play its five region games and three non-region games.
4.) Return to Play — Coaches have been on record multiple times saying that they need at least 6 weeks to prepare for the upcoming season. But some schools (unlike Utah), have sent their players home or haven't been practicing — the Utes have been practicing.
If everything is approved within a two-week time frame, it means that teams would have four weeks to prepare for the upcoming season and begin practice on Monday, Sept. 28.
5.) What about Quidel Testing — The testing machines aren't schedule to arrive on Pac-12 campuses until the end of the month. If that's the case, it would leave an incredible short turnaround time to train everybody necessary on the testing prior to the start of practice.
It should be noted that there is NO way the Pac-12 medical advisory committee would ever allow teams to return to action if the Quidel testing isn't set up and accurate.
RESULTS...
ALL of this needs to happen by Monday, Sept. 28 if the Pac-12 is to play by Oct. 23-24. Who knows if this is reasonable but if the conference is to play at the end of October, it seems risky at best.
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